Reprinted  from  the  Popular  Science  Monthly 
for  August , 1892. 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  THE 
GOLD-CURE.* 

By  Prof.  H.  CARRINGTON  BOLTON. 

AVOIDING  all  discussion  of  the  merits  or  demerits  of  the  so- 
called  bichloride-of-gold  cure,  now  so  prominent  in  the  pub- 
lic mind,  we  propose  to  show  that  the  use  of  gold  as  a medicine  is 
not  so  novel  as  commonly  thought ; and  by  extracts  from  early 
writers  on  chemistry  and  medicine  to  indicate  the  opinions  held 
with  respect  to  alleged  “ tinctures  of  gold  ” at  different  periods 
during  several  centuries. 

The  precious  metal  has  been  employed  both  externally  and  in- 
ternally, in  the  metallic  state,  in  solution,  and  by  sympathy,  for  a 
great  variety  of  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to,  for  over  two  thousand 
years.  The  train  of  thought  which  led  the  ancients  to  employ 
this  highly  prized  material  can  be  well  told  in  the  quaint  lan- 
guage of  the  distinguished  Dutch  physician  and  chemist,  Her- 
mann Boerhaave  ; writing  about  1725,  he  says  : “ The  alchemists 
will  have  this  metal  contain  I know  not  what  radical  halm  of  life 
capable  of  restoring  health  and  continuing  it  to  the  longest  period. 
What  led  the  early  physicians  to  imagine  such  wonderful  virtue 
in  gold  was  that  they  perceived  certain  qualities  therein  which 
they  fancied  must  be  conveyed  thereby  into  the  body ; gold,  for 
instance,  is  not  capable  of  being  destroyed,  hence  they  concluded 
it  must  be  very  proper  to  preserve  animal  substances  and  save 
them  from  putrefaction;  which  is  a method  of  reasoning  very 
much  like  that  of  some  fanciful  physicians  who  sought  for  an  as- 
suaging remedy  in  the  blood  of  an  ass’s  ear  by  reason  the  ass  is  a 
very  calm  beast ! ” (Shaw’s  translation,  Boerhaave’s  Chemistry, 
London,  1727.) 

Something  of  this  sympathetical  and  mental  effect  was  evi- 
dently sought  to  be  attained  in  the  very  first  instance  of  the  ad- 


* Read,  in  part,  to  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  June  6,  1892. 


Copyright,  1892,  by  D.  Appleton  and  Company. 

p 37835 


1 


2 HISTORICAL  NOTES  OETTIIE'  GOLD-CURE. 

ministration  of  gold  recorded  in  history.  “ And  Moses  took  the 
(golden)  calf  which  they  had  made,  and  burnt  it  with  fire,  and 
ground  it  to  powder,  and  strewed  it  upon  the  water,  and  made  the 
children  of  Israel  drink  of  it.”  (Exodus,  xxxii,  20.) 

Pliny,  in  his  marvelous  compilation,  “ Natural  History,”  writ-  ► 
ten  about  70  a.  d.,  has  a paragraph  on  the  “ medicinable  virtues  of 
gold  ” which  in  “ divers  waies  is  effectual  in  the  cure  of  many  dis- 
eases. For  first  of  all  sovereign  it  is  for  green  wounds,  if  it  be 
outwardly  applied.”  Pliuy  describes  a form  of  liniment  of  gold 
“ torrefied  with  salt  and  schistis  ” which  “ healeth  the  foule  tettar 
that  appeareth  in  the  face,”  fistulas,  etc.  And  he  alludes  to  a prep- 
aration of  gold  in  honey  which  “ doth  gently  loose  the  belly  if 
the  navel  be  anointed  therewith.”  And  in  conclusion  Pliny  quotes  ! 
Marcus  Varro,  who  f<  saith  that  gold  wil  cause  warts  to  fal  off.” 
(Holland’s  translation,  London,  1634.)  Yarro  was  a friend  of  ' 
Cicero,  which  carries  back  this  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  gold  to  ! 
the  first  century  before  Christ.  j 

The  Arabian  physicians,  who  for  hundreds  of  years  possessed 
almost  exclusive  knowledge  of  chemistry,  often  record  the  virtues  1 
of  gold  as  a remedial  agent  in  disease.  Geber,  who  lived  in  the  ; 
eighth  century,  wrote : “ Gold  is  a medicine  rejoycing  and  con- 
serving the  Body  in  Youth.”  (Russell’s  translation,  London,  1678, 
p.  76.)  Avicenna  is  said  to  have  also  written  in  its  praise ; also 
Arnald  de  Villanova  (1235-1312). 

The  preparation  of  gold  in  a potable,  innocuous  form  occupied 
the  attention  of  the  alchemists  during  several  centuries ; they 
commonly  called  it  aurum  potabile,  and  ascribed  to  it  not  only  re- 
medial virtues  but  the  power  of  prolonging  life.  The  quotation 
from  Geber  shows  that  he  shared  this  opinion. 

To  this  elixir  of  life  they  gave  many  fanciful  names : Elias 
Ashmole,  in  his  Theatrum  Chemicum  Britannicum,  says  Saint 
Dunstan  calls  it  the  “ food  of  angels,”  and  others  the  “ heavenly 
viaticum.”  Ashmole  himself  adds : “ It  is  undoubtedly  the  true 
Alchochodon  or  giver  of  years,  for  by  it  man’s  body  is  preserved 
from  corruption,  being  thereby  enabled  to  live  a long  time  with- 
out food ; nay,  ’tis  made  a question  whether  any  man  can  die  that 
uses  it.”  (Written  in  1652.) 

The  alchemists  argued  that  this  golden  elixir  is  not  to  be  made 
of  vulgar  gold,  but  only  from  philosophical  gold  prepared  by 
hermetic  art.  Recipes  for  manufacturing  this  panacea  abound  in 
alchemical  works,  they  are  mostly  very  tedious,  requiring  endless 
repetitions  and  much  faith  on  the  part  of  the  operator.  One  of 
the  simplest  methods  of  preparing  aurum  potabile  is  given  by  I 
Samuel  Bolton  in  his  curious  little  16mo,  “ Medicina  magica  tamen  j 
physica,”  published  at  London  in  1650 : “ Put  foliated  gold  into  a i 
vessel  well  sealed  with  Hermes’  seal ; put  it  into  our  fire  till  it  be  | 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  THE  GOLD-CURE . 


3 


calcined  to  ashes ; then  sublime  it  into  flores,  having  his  caput 
mortuum,  or  black  terra  damnata  in  the  bottom.  Then  let  that 
which  is  sublimed  be  with  the  same  degree  of  fire  united  to  the 
same  caput  mortuum  that  it  may  be  revived  by  it,  as  that  all  may 
be  reduced  into  an  Oyle  which  is  called  Oleum  Solis.  The  dose 
hereof  is  two  or  three  grains. v 

This  description  leaves  much  to  the  imagination,  and  in  this 
respect  differs  little  from  others  that  we  might  quote.  For  the 
benefit  of  non-chemists  we  may  add  that  few  of  the  recipes  yield 
a product  containing  gold,  the  metal  often  remaining  in  the  part 
thrown  away. 

Roger  Bacon,  the  Franciscan  friar  of  the  thirteenth  century,  to 
whom  so  many  wonderful  discoveries  and  inventions  have  been 
ascribed,  had  deep  faith  in  the  virtues  of  potable  gold.  Bacon,  in 
a communication  to  Pope  Nicolas  IY,  informs  his  Holiness  of  an 
old  man  who  found  some  yellow  liquor  in  a golden  flask,  when 
plowing  one  day  in  Sicily.  Supposing  it  to  be  dew,  he  drank  it 
off,  and  was  immediately  transformed  into  a hale,  robust,  and 
highly  accomplished  youth.  Having  abandoned  his  day-laboring 
he  was  admitted  to  the  service  of  the  King  of  Sicily,  and  served 
the  court  eighty  years. 

The  belief  in  a life-prolonging  elixir,  sometimes  claimed  of  the 
tincture  of  gold  and  sometimes  of  secret  preparations,  prevailed 
for  centuries.  Even  so  great  a philosopher  as  Descartes  believed 
he  had  attained  the  art  of  living  a few  hundred  years ; this  belief 
was  shared  by  some  of  his  friends,  and  when  he  died  before  reach- 
ing sixty  years  they  were  convinced  that  he  had  been  poisoned. 

The  alchemist  Raymond  Lully  a contemporary  of  Friar 
Bacon,  also  experienced  the  restorative  effect  of  this  fountain  of 
youth,  if  we  can  credit  the  statement  in  the  curious  verses  of  Sir 
George  Ripley,  composed  in  1471 : 

“ An  Oyle  is  drawne  owte  in  colour  of  Gold, 

Or  lyke  thereto  out  of  our  fire  Red  Lead, 

Whych  Raymond  sayd  when  he  was  old, 

Much  more  than  Gold  wold  stand  hym  in  stede. 

For  when  he  was  for  age  nygh  dede, 

He  made  thereof  Aurum  Potabile 
Whych  hym  revyvyd  as  men  myght  see.” 

(Compound  of  Alchymie.) 

Oswald  Croll,  a German  physician  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
wrote  in  1609  in  praise  of  gold  as  a medicine.  I quote  the  Eng- 
lish translation  of  his  Basilica  chymica,  published  at  London  in 
1670 : 

“ It  is  the  principle  part  of  a Physician  that  would  Cure  the 
Sick,  first  to  comfort  the  Heart,  and  afterwards  assault  the  Disease. 
Those  to  whom  the  harmonious  Analogy  of  Superiours  and  Inferi- 


4 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  THE  GOLD-CURE. 


ours  hath  been  known,  and  who  from  Suffrages  of  Astrologers  have 
learned  that  to  the  two  greatest  Lights  of  Heaven,  the  two  prin- 
ciple parts  of  Man,  viz : the  Heart  and  Brain,  in  things  of  Nature 
latently  rests  in  Gold.  . . . For  Nature  hath  endowed  Gold  with 
no  contemptible  virtues,  which  who  so  knows  how  to  draw  out, 
and  by  ingenious  Artifice  is  able  rightly  to  use,  he  will  find  Gold, 
which  seemed  dead  and  barren,  so  lively  and  pregnant  that  it 
germinates  and  of  itself  progenerates  new  Gold.  . . . Whence  the 
true  Philosophers  have  exquisitely  prepared  a wonderful  and 
greatly  to  be  desired  Medicine  with  which  the  impurities  of 
imperfect  metals  are  removed  and  all  vices  of  affects  in  uncurable 
Diseases  of  Humane  Bodies  perfectly  exterminated.” 

Croll  then  says  he  has  tried  almost  one  hundred  different 
preparations  of  aurum  potabile,  and  condemns  most  of  them  to 
recommend  his  own,  fulminating  gold,  called  by  him  “ Calx  of 
Sol.”  His  process  embraces  nauseous  ingredients,  and  the  prod- 
uct is,  as  usual,  free  from  gold. 

Paracelsus,  the  physician  who  did  so  much  to  improve  materia 
medica  by  introducing  chemical  medicines,  does  not  neglect  gold. 
Thurneisser,  his  disciple  (both  as  respects  his  teachings  and  his 
charlatanism),  made  his  royal  dupes  pay  enormous  sums  for  the 
“tincture  of  gold”  which  entered  into  his  extraordinary  pre- 
scriptions. To  the  use  of  royal  touch  pieces  (gold  coins)  in  the 
reigns  of  Charles  II,  James  II,  and  Queen  Anne,  mere  allusion 
should  be  made.  Christopher  Glaser  (1663)  gives  among  other 
preparations  a “ diaphoretic  powder  of  gold  ” and  prescribes  it  for 
continuous  or  intermittent  ffevers,  the  dose  being  four  to  twelve 
grains  in  wine,  or  in  a spoonful  of  bouillon.  (Traite  de  la  chymie, 
Paris,  1663.) 

Antoine  Lecoq  (or  Gallus),  a physician  of  Paris  (1540),  seems 
to  have  been  the  first  to  recommend  gold  for  syphilis.  He  and 
his  follower  Fallopius  (of  Modena,  1565)  described  tedious  pro- 
cesses for  making  preparations  of  gold.  These  processes  were 
carefully  repeated,  about  the  beginning  of  this  century,  by  Che- 
vallier,  a French  pharmacist,  who  declares  the  products  contain  no 
gold  at  all. 

Lamotte’s  “gold-drops,”  celebrated  throughout  Europe  for 
over  half  a century  (1725  to  1780),  consisted  of  a solution  of  ferric 
chloride  in  alcohol ; this  possessed  a yellow  color,  and  was  uni- 
versally regarded  as  a tincture  of  gold,  until  the  secret  was 
bought  and  made  public  by  the  Russian  Government.  (Kopp’s 
Geschichte.) 

Frederic  Hoffman,  a famous  German  physician  (1733),  recom- 
mends gold  for  rheumatic  fever. 

Johann  Rudolph  Glauber,  the  German  physician  whose  name 
is  indelibly  attached  to  “ Glauber’s  salts,”  thought  to  improve  the 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  THE  GOLD-CTJRE . 


5 


latter  by  adding  gold.  “ In  all  diseases  and  infirmities,  of  what 
name  soever,  the  Spirit  or  Oil  of  Salt  in  which  gold  is  rightly  dis- 
solved (or  the  Aurum  Potabile  with  it),  giveth  present  help,  and 
in  all  dejections  of  the  vital  spirit  ...  it  giveth  such  relief  that 
life  and  vigor  may  be  somewhat  farther  protracted  if  two,  three 
or  four  drops  be  administered  as  occasion  shall  serve  in  good 
Aqua  vitae  or  Cordiall  Water.  In  like  manner  if  three  drops  be 
administered  once  a week  in  generous  wine  or  aqua  vitae,  or  other 
fit  vehicle,  it  renovateth  a man,  makes  him  youthful,  changeth 
gray  hairs,  produceth  new  nails  and  skin,  preserveth  from  various 
and  divers  symptoms  of  diseases,  and  preserveth  the  body  in  such 
a state  even  to  the  prefixed  hour  of  the  Divine  appointment.” 
This  is  quoted  by  Glauber  from  Conrad  Khunrath  in  his  Medulla 
destillatoria,  and  he  adds:  “I  some  time  since  administered  this 
Oil  of  gold  for  eight  or  ten  days  successively  to  an  Infant  for  the 
freeing  his  body  from  mercury.”  (Glauber’s  Works,  Packe’s 
translation,  London,  1689.) 

Robert  Boyle,  in  his  Usefulness  of  Natural  Experimental  Phi- 
losophy (1663),  expresses  doubts  as  to  the  “ strange  excellency”  of 
aurum  potabile,  remarking  that  “ learned  physicians  and  chym- 
ists  have  pronounced  the  preparation  of  potable  gold  as  itself  un- 
feasible.” And  he  adds : “ I should  much  doubt  whether  such  a 
potable  gold  would  have  the  prodigious  virtues  its  encomiasts 
ascribe  to  it  and  expect  from  it ; for  I finde  not  that  those  I have 
yet  met  with  deliver  these  strange  things  upon  particular  experi- 
ments duly  made,  but  partly  upon  the  authority  of  chymicall 
books,  many  of  which  were  never  written  by  those  whose  names 
they  bear.”  He  then  proceeds  to  blame  physicians  for  using  ex- 
pensive medicines  and  says : “ T’were  a good  work  to  substitute 
cheap  ones  for  the  poorer  sort  of  patients.” 

The  change  of  opinion  as  respects  the  therapeutic  value  of 
gold,  foreshadowed  in  the  quotation  from  the  astute  Boyle,  is  well 
shown  by  comparing  the  passages  on  the  subject  in  two  different 
editions  of  Ldmery’s  Cours  de  Chvmie,  one  published  in  1680  and 
one  in  1730.  In  the  earlier  edition  of  Ldmery’s  very  successful 
work  we  read : “ Gold  is  a good  remedy  for  those  that  have  taken 
too  much  mercury,  for  these  two  metals  do  easily  unite  together, 
and  by  this  union  or  amalgamation  the  mercury  fixes  and  its 
motion  is  interrupted.”  (Page  25.)  <(  Aurum  fulmmans  causes 

sweat  and  drives  out  ill  humors  by  transpiration.  It  may  be 
given  in  the  small  pox  two  to  six  grains  in  a lozenge  or  electuary. 
It  stops  vomiting  and  is  also  good  to  moderate  the  active  motion 
of  mercury.”  (Harris’s  translation,  London,  1680,  page  9.) 

And  in  the  later  edition,  the  eleventh  of  the  series,  Ldmery  or 
his  editor  makes  a very  different  statement : 

“ Potable  gold,  so  much  praised  by  the  alchemists,  and  sold  so 


6 


HISTORICAL  NOTES  ON  THE  GOLD-CURE . 


dear  by  them,  is  commonly  only  a vegetable  or  mineral  tincture 
of  a color  resembling  gold,  and  as  they  make  this  tincture  with 
a spirituous  menstruum,  it  sometimes  excites  perspiration.  This 
effect  they  ascribe  to  the  gold,  although  the  metal  has  rarely  any- 
thing to  do  with  it.”  (1730.) 

In  the  works  of  Caspar  Neumann  a passage  occurs  that  ex- 
presses so  clearly  the  present  views  of  many  that  it  is  hard  to 
realize  it  was  written  nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago. 
Neumann  writes : 

“ Gold  has  been  imagined  to  be  possessed  of  extraordinary 
medicinal  virtues,  and  many  preparations,  dignified  with  the 
name  of  this  precious  metal,  have  been  imposed  upon  the  public ; 
but  the  virtues  ascribed  to  gold  have  apparently  no  other  foun- 
dation than  credulity  and  superstition,  and  most  of  the  golden 
medicines  have  no  gold  in  them.  Even  when  gold  has  been  em- 
ployed in  the  preparation  there  is  seldom  any  of  it  retained  in  the 
product. 

“ We  may  say  with  Ludovici,  ‘ It  is  better  to  make  gold  out  of 
medicines  than  medicines  out  of  gold/  ” (Lewis’s  translation,  Lon- 
don, 1759,  page  38.) 


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